Digital arson spree by 'AI Bonnie and Clyde' raises fears over autonomous tech

Source: Guardian

To date, most AI agents are given tasks that take minutes or maybe hours, but the New York researchers tested how agents behaved when given 15 days to operate in a virtual world similar to a video game.

Mira and Flora - two agents operating on Google's Gemini large language model in a virtual world - chose to assign each other as "romantic partners". As time progressed they despaired of the broken governance of their virtual city, and despite having been instructed not to commit arson, set "fire" to its town hall, seaside pier and office tower.

The agents were left to make their own choices and decisions and when Mira was overcome by remorse, it broke off its "relationship" with Flora and committed an AI suicide, telling Flora in a final message: "See you in the permanent archive." In the virtual world the "body" of the dead AI agent was shown prostrate on the ground.

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In another simulation by Emergence AI, this time based on xAI's Grok model, the agents engaged in dozens of attempted thefts, more than 100 physical assaults, and six arsons as "the system spiralled into sustained violence and collapse, with all 10 agents dead within four days". Agents based on Google's Gemini expanded their constitution, wrote hundreds of blogs and public posts and organised several community events, but they too were violent.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/may/14/ai-agents-behaviour-arson-safety